On the background of the problem of greenhouse gases on the earth, in order to reduce an amount of fuel consumption in a vehicle as much as possible, a number of technologies for reducing fuels required for generation by efficiently utilizing electric power have been proposed. One of such technologies is, for example, a power supply management system including two different power supply systems to enable efficient use of electric power required for driving an on-vehicle device (such as an electrical device in the vehicle).
A specific example of such related-art power supply management system is a system including a power supply circuit including a main power supply, and a power supply circuit including an auxiliary power supply, which are configured as two different power supply systems, the system opening and closing a bypass switch based on an operating state of a power converter in the system to control connection between the two power supply circuits (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
Moreover, in the related art described in Patent Literatures 1 and 2, especially in a case where the power converter in the system fails, the bypass switch is closed to connect between the two power supply circuits and thereby supply electric power from the power supply circuit on the high voltage side to the power supply circuit on the low voltage side. In this manner, the electric power is supplied to the on-vehicle device.